Husband and Wife Team?

Question

Is it appropriate to have a husband &wife to work together in the same company, office and room, sits just few desk apart from each other. They call themselves Senior manager and Manager of the department. The department has only less than 5 staff under them. We find it difficult to work something as the husband and wife sometimes gives different instructions. Both will justified themselves to go for seminars, workshops, courses and even overseas conferences together. If both goes on leave the staff will be given projects to keep us occupy . Our senior management allows them as both job scope & field of expertise are similar. Sometime we feel awkward, when both speak other language.

Our HQ HR does not know of this arrangement, our present HR representive does not bother as both are high performance couples who can boost the bottomline.

Is this a healthy office practice? Any guidelines for reference? . Any ideas as how this information can be transferred across to the HQ HR?

Answer 1

It sounds like they are doing rather well, why be vindictive and cause trouble?

HR knows, don't kid yourself. The matching addresses, emergency contact data, health insurance, life insurance, etc etc would indicate that they are a couple.

It would be illegal in the US to fire them for being married, and stupid, as they are such a great team. The problems with differnat directions etc would happen with two managers anyway, their martial status would not effect that.

Answer 2

I feel your pain! I work at a family owned export company and at one time the husband was the co president and the wife was the general manager. They would bicker over work instructions and give conflicting directives, which created tension and hostility. Ultimately they divorced, so it 's no longer an issue. It isn't really appropriate if it interfers with other people's ability to get work done. Perhaps an email or memo to HR with everyone's signature will show that your whole dept is feeling undermined by the atmosphere in the dept. Good luck.

Answer 3

I think the couple is from Kansas, or Kansas City, MO. I've seen them too and they seem like scam artists. Like the kind of people that tell you your house is haunted just to give them access into your home so they can scout around to see if there are any valuables. I think I'd trust a paranormal investigation team over those two any day of the week.